Neuroscience Research Institute, Peking University, 38 Xueyuan Road, Beijing, China.
Neurosci Res. 2011 Oct;71(2):149-60. doi: 10.1016/j.neures.2011.06.010. Epub 2011 Jul 18.
The question pursued in this study was when neural activity appears in the cortico-basal ganglia system that could predict alternate behavioral responses in a reaction time (RT) task. In this protocol, rats first performed a nose poke to initiate a trial, depressed a lever when presented, and then released the lever after a tone cue. Multiple-channel, single-unit recordings (up to 62 units) were obtained simultaneously from the prefrontal cortex, the dorsal medial striatum, the globus pallidus, and the substantia nigra pars reticulata in a single rat during a session. Results indicated that (1) global alterations of neural activity appeared in clusters, which was associated with different behavioral components and observed in each of the targeted areas; (2) small independent subsets of neurons responded differently between error (lever was released before tone presentation) and correct trials (lever was released within 0.5s after tone onset) during these behavioral episodes; (3) significant correlations between RTs and single units activities were found in the early preparation phases of the task. The results reveal that complex early preparatory activity exists several seconds before the final movements in a RT task, which may determine executive functions leading to rapid decoding of alternate behavioral performances.
本研究旨在探讨在反应时（RT）任务中，皮质基底节系统何时出现神经活动，从而可以预测交替的行为反应。在本方案中，大鼠首先进行鼻触以启动试验，在呈现时按下杠杆，然后在音调提示后释放杠杆。在单个大鼠的一次试验中，同时从前额叶皮层、背内侧纹状体、苍白球和黑质网状部获得多达 62 个通道的单个单元记录。结果表明：（1）神经活动的全局变化出现在簇中，这与不同的行为成分有关，并且在每个目标区域中都观察到；（2）在这些行为事件中，错误（杠杆在音调呈现前释放）和正确试验（杠杆在音调起始后 0.5s 内释放）之间的小独立神经元子集表现出不同的反应；（3）在任务的早期准备阶段发现 RT 和单个单元活动之间存在显著相关性。研究结果表明，在 RT 任务的最终运动之前，存在数秒的复杂早期准备活动，这可能决定了执行功能，从而快速解码交替的行为表现。
